Damien Hirst – “Two Weeks One Summer”

Damien Hirst is one of the most controversial contemporary figures in the art world, always garnering a great deal of attention, and lately, much of it has been rather negative. Between the “Spot Paintings” at all eleven Gagosians this year to his Tate Modern retrospective in London, he has made quite an impact on the contemporary art scene this year. Both of these shows had mixed reviews, but his most recent one, “Two Weeks One Summer” at White Cube Bermondsey has received mostly negative reviews. This show features a series of paintings created by Hirst himself over the last two years.

In recent years, Damien Hirst has been attempting to create more of his works rather then use his studio assistants. His show from the Wallace Collection a few years ago featured his “No Love Lost, Blue Paintings” series, was highly criticized for being merely derivative of Bacon, unoriginal, and not painted well by Hirst. With “Two Weeks One Summer,” Critics such as Jonathan Jones have ripped into Hirst for these paintings. They are simplistic and feature subject such as butterflies, spots, parrots, and flowers. The negative reviews have been coming from the fact that they are poorly painted, look simplistic, and are not thought provoking like some of his other works. There is nothing challenging or particularly interesting about these paintings; frankly, they fall quite flat.

Hirst may never be able to produce new work as shocking or radical as “For the Love of God” or “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living”, but he still continues to make an impact on the contemporary art scene. His show at the Tate focuses on his earlier works and demonstrates that this may have been the peak of Hirst’s career. This show rewrites history by only focusing on certain periods of his career, leaving out works such as the Blue Paintings from the show at the Wallace Collection, creating a skewed picture of Hirst’s career. “Two Weeks One Summer” disappointed many critics and admirers of Damien Hirst’s radical works, but these paintings have certainly generated a great deal of buzz—and if his main aim is to get people talking, then Hirst
has achieved this goal.